The Doctor Who Gave Up Drugs

Episode 2SBSMarch 27, 2017

Dr Chris van Tullenken has been trying to treat specially selected patients without drugs and wants to share what he's learnt with fourteen thousand patients at the clinic. The drug free clinic has an underwhelming launch, as Dr Chris learns that people would rather pop a pill than make lifestyle changes. Chris meets Crystal, who is taking 30 pills a day for her chronic back pain. Over five months and a dramatic withdrawal from her addictive meds, Chris leads her on an extraordinary road to recovery.

The prospect of conceiving a human being in a laboratory used to be the realm of science fiction. But in 1978, everything changed. This film tells the story of the doctors, researchers and hopeful couples who pushed the boundaries of science and triggered a technological revolution in human reproduction.

For hundreds of years, people have been discriminated against because of their skin colour. In Skin Deep, anthropologist Nina Jablonski reveals the science behind skin pigmentation and its crucial role in survival and reproduction. She also raises the notion that light-skinned people are mutants of dark-skinned people, putting a whole new spin on the notion of racism.

Episode four follows the intensive care and respiratory doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital as they deal with difficult ethical decisions. Modern medicine means that most children who come here will get better and leave within a short time but some conditions are so complex that the children become dependent on technology to keep them alive. Parents and doctors must weigh up when to keep relying on technology, and when it is no longer right to continue treatment.

For hundreds of years, people have been discriminated against because of their skin colour. In Skin Deep, anthropologist Nina Jablonski reveals the science behind skin pigmentation and its crucial role in survival and reproduction. She also raises the notion that light-skinned people are mutants of dark-skinned people, putting a whole new spin on the notion of racism.

Last year, doctors in the UK handed over a billion prescriptions, a 50 percent rise in the last 10 years. Dr Chris van Tulleken knows drugs save lives, but he believes Britain's prescription drug binge is dangerous. To find solutions, he takes over part of a busy GP surgery in East London to try and take patients off their pills and treat them in other ways. His first patient is Wendy, who has been taking pain killers for the last 20 years to deal with chronic pain in her shoulder. Chris is determined to prove to her that drugs don't work, but she'll need a lot of convincing. He devises an experiment - two weeks' worth of medication with a twist: some of the pills are placebos, and some are the real thing, but she doesn't know which is which.